A service-oriented approach: Cooper Tire joins a growing list of manufacturers using Web services to create architectures that better support their business models.(Information technology: innovation & insights)

MSI, January, 2004 by Hill, Sidney, Jr.

When Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Findlay Ohio, looked to speed up its manufacturing process, it quickly recognized that its method for keeping track of the molds from which its tires are built was a major bottleneck. These molds--which are large, round pieces of cast metal--are shared by four manufacturing facilities, each with its own system for recording when it received a mold and when it passed one to a different location.

Behind it all was a communication chain that required individual workers to place a phone call, or send a fax or e-mail message when they finished using a mold. More than once, this system caused molds to sit in storerooms for weeks at a time while production schedulers scrambled to find the materials needed to fill just-in-time (JIT)...

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